Gallop confident competition will be tighter than ever

After 10 years, what's the most exciting thing about this year's competition?

The closeness of the competition is the cornerstone of the game's spectacular growth over the last few years and 2012 shapes as perhaps the closest comp ever with the new coaches coming in and some older coaches who have changed clubs.

David Gallop ... optimistic about new season, new commission, new headquarters. Photo: Charles Knight

Todd has been drinking when he's promised various groups, from his playing peers to the court

system, that he wasn't going to drink. He needs to be realistic about how he is going to handle alcohol.

When I last met with Todd I spoke to him about the perils of putting himself in the position where he can't keep the promises that he's making. And that in a community like Cronulla, he will be easily noticed if he makes a big mistake.

Hopefully he appreciates that and knuckles down and does what we all know he is capable of doing on the footy field. And doesn't bring himself under focus for what he does off the field.

Given none of those promises were enforced by the NRL but his former club the Roosters, does that give Carney a little leeway with the NRL?

After the year out of the spotlight in North Queensland, and then a Dally M-winning comeback, he got himself caught driving (under the influence) early in the morning, which was largely an inadvertent mistake. But his driving record is a heavy weight he will have to carry around with him for a long time.

If he makes a major mistake it'll be hard to come back from.

Ryan Tandy

Ryan Tandy's case is still in the court system as to whether there is an appeal. Unless he were to win that appeal, however, it appears inevitable that he will be banned for life.

We need to make sure that everyone understands how serious the consequences can be for that kind of behaviour and send a major message of deterrence to anyone who would even consider playing around with what seems like perhaps only a small part of the game. But like [spot-betting on] no-balls in cricket, it has the ability to completely break down people's faith in the integrity of the contest. It is extremely serious and something we are encouraging governments to continue to look at.

Is Robert Lui's charge for assaulting his partner as detrimental to the game's image?

Both he and the Cowboys know that while we don't want to see young men cut adrift from football, the game takes very seriously any incident involving violence towards women.

Both manipulating the game for financial advantage and violence towards women damage the image of the game and can have huge consequences for the support that the game needs from the biggest sponsors to the families who buy their memberships and tickets at the gate.

Robert has got some serious issues to address and hopefully in his home environment in North Queensland he can be in position to put things right.

What does the new headquarters mean for rugby league?

The new building is absolutely fantastic and comes as a very nice coincidence around the formation of the commission, which we expect on February 10.

Already the ability to just walk down the hallway and talk to various other arms of the game has made a big difference to communication, giving everyone the sense they are all part of the one game and working in the one direction. And to be in such a prestigious sporting precinct, I think, is a feather in the game's cap.

Golden point

We are going to review golden point during the finals this year. We need to be cautious not to overload our players with extra time on the park because that extra period is incredibly taxing on the players. We won't change it for 2012 but we will continue to look at the impact of golden point.

What changes we can expect from the referees this year?

The referees and their coaches have placed an emphasis on greater consistency between the two referees with regard to the 10 metres during the off season. And apart from greater interchange relief for players injured by foul play and a tinkering to make sure infringements by the defending team at 20m restarts are awarded from where the infringement occurred, not from the centre, there won't be any major rule changes.

Our new review committee, which includes guys like Ricky Stuart, Mal Meninga, Trent Barrett and Daniel Anderson, is comfortable with the way the game is played and interpreted but having them in place will allow us to be constantly reviewing things.

As well as reviewing the rules, I am delighted that the game now employs guys like Nigel Vagana, Andrew Ryan, Trent Barrett and most recently Alan Tongue and Darren Lockyer to help us make decisions.